1. The prosecution of Sichuan quake activist Tan Zuoren was clearly political and intended to silence whistle-blowers, critics said yesterday - people who report things that are going wrong or illegal or immoral events. Here it refers to the people who say the government was responsible of the poor condition of the contructions that collapsed when the quake hit Sichuan -

2. Tan carried out an investigation of the shoddy school construction - cheap and careless -

3. The court verdict said Tan's essay had 'wantonly distorted, smeared and discredited the government's lawful handling of the June 4 incident' - willingly deformed, damaged the reputation -

4. it also dashes the hope of members of the public - puts an end to -

5. Five years for a state security crime is like using a sledge-hammer to crack a nut- a sledge-hammer is a very large tool with a heavy metallic flat head. The image here is that the sentence is disproportionate to the crime -